Jefferson Market Police Court: German street band demonstration

“A few minutes before noon on Tuesday a band of street musicians armed with large brass instruments which looked the worse for wear, filed out of a lager beer saloon in Greenwich avenue, and, followed by a crowd of small boys, marched down the avenue and turning into West Tenth street halted in front of the entrance to the Jefferson Market Police Court. Just as the bell in the fire tower began to strike twelve, five well-dressed men ascended the stairs to the court room. The boys shouted, ‘There go the new clerks,’ and the German musicians vigorously played ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ The five new clerks turned, smiled, and proceeded. The small boys held down their heads and spoke not a word. Against the iron bars of the prison windows were the faces of men and women, and peering from behind the half-opened prison gates were the keepers. The musicians blew until they became red in the face. After they had played the tune through five times, and had struck the first note of the second bar the sixth time, the doors at the top of the stairs opened, and the old clerks, led by the German Baron who has interpreted to so many justices the language of the Fatherland, began to descend. The small boys shouted, ‘Here they come.’ The band took the cue, and changed ‘Auld Lang Syne’ into the ‘Rogue’s March’ without taking the instruments from their lips. The small boys yelled; the prison gate opened wide, and the keepers stepped to the sidewalk. The number of the faces in the grated windows increased. The old clerks stood for a moment astonished. Then smiling, bowed their acknowledgements, and, turning into Greenwich avenue, disappeared.”